Scriptures; and the true Senfe of them, yet fhe éan do it no otherwise than as the ancient Church did by her Teftimony and Tradition, but is fhe therefore above them. The true Tradition of the Church conveyed down from Age to Age in the Writings of the ancient Fathers, tells me in what Books they are contained, and that thofe Books were written by Men inspired by God: But then though I believe them to be fuch upon her external Teftimony and Tradition, yet I have farther intrinfecal Evidence from the Scriptures themfelves, as the Samaritans, who when they had heard Christ, did not reft in the Teftimony of the Woman who brought them to him, but faid unto her; Now we believe, not because of thy faying, for we have heard him our felves, and know that this is indeed the Chrift, and the Saviour of the World. All that the Church can do is to atteft the Scriptures, and the Sense of them in controverted Points; and her we are ready to hear as the fpeaks in the ancient Fathers and Councils, who were the living, governing Church in the best and pureft Times. To them our Writers have often told you we appeal, as to judges in all things wherein we differ not only from yours, but other Churches: To them, I fay, we appeal to whom every Church ought to appeal in all Con troverfies when they are truly fuch, by being lawfully called, and permitted to act freely without Fear, Force, or Corruption, and to examine the Scriptures and the Fathers fairly and impartially, as was wont to be done in the ancient General Councils. But for good Reasons, Sir, we deny your Council of Trent to be fuch, because it was not a General, but a Particular Western Council, full of unworthy Arts and Influences, Partiality and Corruption, in which nothing was propofed but by the Pope's Legates. Monfieur Rancin's Review of that Council, and Father Paul's Hiftory of it will be Evidence against

it, and its proceedings, as long as the World eft dures. For my part I believe that God now as in the Primitive Times, before there were General Councils, affifts a Provincial or a National Council by his Spirit, as much as any General Councils and fuch we have had many in England fince the Reformation lawfully called, and freely acting without Fear, Force, or Fraud, which have rea formed and established our Church in the pure Pri mitive Faith, Worship, and Polity, according to that intrinfecal Right and Power which every Church, National, Provincial, or Diocefan hath to reform it felf, and is bound fo to do, when there is Occafion. Wherefore, Sir, I doubt not but Chrift was, by his Spirit, with our English Clergy in their Convocations, which debated freely, and after dili gent and impartial examination of the Scriptures and ancient Catholick Tradition establish'd the Reformation; and to that Church fo reformed by the divine Assistance, as an humble Penitent, I return. To that Church which for above an Hundred Years hath been pure in Faith and Worship; apoftolical in her Polity and Succeffion; decent in her Cere monies; happy in a valid Miniftry; devout in her Liturgy; intelligible in her Worship by her moft illiterate Children; found in her Catechifm, Homilies, and Articles; right and indeficient in her Ordinal; canonical in her Hours of Prayer; judicious and prudent in her Canons and Conftitutions; primitive in her annual Feafts and Fafts; and in a word, built in every part upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apoftles, Jefus Chrift himfelf being the chief Corner-stone.

This Church, Sir, hath weeded the Tares the Romanifts fowed in her out of her Corn; winnowed the Chaff from the Wheat; and feparated the Drofs and bafer Mettals from the pure Gold of the Chriftian Religion; and reduced her felf to the ancient

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Ufe and Standard of the Scriptures, as understood and expounded by the true old Catholick Tradition, as I beg leave to reprefent to you in fome inftances, in which fhe hath reformed.

Thus the praiseth God, as the Primitive Church did for the Miniftry of the Holy Angels, and begs their Protection of God, as Guardians he hath appointed to watch over us; but the doth not teach us to worship or invoke them. She teacheth us alfo to honour the Saints, and to praise God for them, both for the Grace he gave them, and for the Benefit of their holy Examples, which we ought to follow, and to rejoice in their Happiness. Such Honour indeed have all his Saints: Honour in honourable Commemorations; but not Worship by Prayers, Altars, and Invocations, which your Church practifes contrary to the Doctrine of Scriptures, and Practice of the Primitive Church, as our Writers have fhewn.

So fhe teaches Heaven and Hell to be places prepared by God for eternal Reward and Punishment; and denies not Third Places of Cuftody or Repofitories of good and bad Souls till the Day of Judgment, which many of the Ancients believed; but she doth not teach it, or make it an Article of Faith, as your Church doth her Fiction of a Penal, Local Purgatory: Which because you cannot prove to be a true Opinion from Scripture or Antiquity, the exprefly denies. O, Sir! how happy would it be for you, and for the Chriftian World, if your Church would learn her Modefty in being filent, where the Scriptures and Antiquity fay nothing; nor make doubtful, and difputable School-points, much lefs fuch as are improbable, falfe, or abfurd Doctrines, Articles of Faith.

So all her Offices are penn'd in the MotherTongues of her People. Her French Congregations have them in French, the Welsh People, that

under

understand not English, in the British, and in the Isle of Man they worship God in the Mansk, as we do in our English Tongue. But your Church is a Barbarian to her People, for the prays in a Tongue even in Rome it felf, which the common People do not understand: So that as our Lord faid to his ambitious Disciples, that they knew not what they ask'd, may be truly faid of them, that they know not what they pray for, nor to what they fay Amen. They, poor abused Souls, cannot pray with the Spirit, because they cannot pray with the Understanding; but bleffed be God, the most illiterate in our Communion, if they want not inward Devotion, pray with the Spirit, and with the Understanding alfo.

She alfo acknowledges a propitiatory Sacrifice, I mean the grand propitiatory Sacrifice, which Christ made of himself once upon the Crofs, and allows in her Writers, the ancient diftinction of the bloody and unbloody Sacrifice: But then as by the bloody Sacrifice, they understand that of Chrift, in which he shed his precious Blood for the Sins of the whole World; fo by the unbloody Sacrifice they mean the Holy Eucharift or Sacrament of the Altar, in which the bloody Sacrifice is not only commemo→ rated by the Faithful, but, prefented before God in its proper Symbols; whereof the one reprefents the Body, and the other the Blood of Chrift crucified according to his own Inftitution: And this commemorative unbloody Sacrifice, is no otherwise propitiatory than our Prayers are; to wit, in virtue of that Propitiation which was made by the bloody Sacrifice of Chrift upon the Cross. A true and proper propitiatory Sacrifice therefore the Holy Eucharift is not, as your Church abfurdly teacheth, though it is a commemorative Sacrifice. I fay, as your Church abfurdly teach→ eth in contradiction to its own Canon of the Mass,

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where you beg acceptance of your Sacrifice of the Altar through Chrift; which you need not do if it were Propitiatory in its own Nature, and by its own Virtue, as that of Chrift upon the Crofs was: Much more, if by the words of Confecration it be really, truly, and fubftantially converted into the Body and Blood of Chrift; and that his Body and Blood is truly, really, and fubftantially in the Sacrament with his Soul and Divinity, as your Creed afferts. For if the fame Chrift, who was born of the Virgin, put to Death_upon the Cross, rofe again from the Dead, and afcended into Heaven, be corporally present in the Hoft with his Soul and Divinity, then in effect you befeech God in that Prayer, to accept Chrift on the Altar for Chrift's fake in Heaven; and alfo befeech Christ in Heaven, through Christ upon the Altar, to deliver you from all your Sins. Befides, if the fame Chrift who offered up himself in a bloody manner upon the Crofs, be offered without Blood in the Sacrifice of the Mafs; how faith the Apoftle fo emphatically, and fo often, that he was once offered to put away Sin; that is, once offered as an all-fufficient Sacrifice for the Sins of the World: For by one offering, one all-fufficient Sacrifice for Sins, he hath for ever perfected them who are fanctified. But according to your Do&trine of the true, proper, and propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mafs, it is needful he should be daily offered upon the Altar: And then there are more

Placeat tibi Sancta Trinitas obfequium fervitutis meæ, & præfta, ut Sacrificium, quod oculis tuæ Majeftatis indignus obtuli Tibi fit acceptabile mihique & omnibus, pro quibus, illud obtuli, fit Te miferante, propiciabile, per Chriftum Dominum noftrum. Amen.

b Domine Jefu Chrifti, Fili Dei vivi, c. libera me per hoc facro-fanctum Corpus, & fanguinem tuum ab omnibas iniquita tibus meis & Luiverfis malis, &c. Amen.

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